View full sizeBruce Ely/The OregonianGreg Oden reacts after his injury Saturday at the Rose Garden.On Sunday, the Trail Blazers announced that Greg Oden underwent successful surgery to repair his fractured left patella. And a few minutes later, the organization organized a conference call to answer questions.

Just one here.

Will you make the playoffs?

More on that in a bit.

First, understand, I'm concerned with Greg Oden's injury and how a broken patella might result in a broken will. And I feel for the big guy, because the journey to the operating room on Sunday was an absurd one given his priors.

He put in the work. He listened to his mentors. Oden bought in -- all the way in. Maybe when a lot of others would have folded up and decided it was too much, he moved onward in a way that was inspiring, right up until the moment he moved to defend the basket and that patella split and he found himself on the floor.

Let's sift through the wreckage for a moment. Owner Paul Allen is battling non-Hodgins lymphoma. Assistant coach Maurice Lucas has cancer that is no longer in remission. Nic Batum (shoulder) is gone for the season. So is Travis Outlaw (foot). And Rudy Fernandez has nerve pain (back). And the practice before Oden went down for the season head coach Nate McMillan jumped into a practice drill due to the shortage of players and ruptured his Achilles tendon.

As general manager Kevin Pritchard said Sunday: "Sheesh."

Which brings me to my single question. The one that the Blazers must answer today and every day for the rest of the season -- can you do it? Because the Blazers must make the playoffs in spite of all that's gone wrong. Falling short of qualifying for the postseason would be disastrous considering all the organization has overcome to get here.

The Blazers are down to nine players. And the bulk of the playoff push is going to have to come from within the souls who are still healthy. That means Brandon Roy carrying his team again and LaMarcus Aldridge raising his game while playing some backup center and Joel Przybilla doing what he's always done when his number is called.

This team must deliver itself to the playoffs.

That's the goal. Because lowering the expectations isn't the answer when you have so much going wrong around you.

Great franchises rise above circumstances. Great teams overcome. When it's harnessed in a focused direction, emotion is a powerful thing. It's why coaches try all the time to fabricate situations in which they can howl to their teams about being wronged, then send them on the court/field to do something about it.

The Blazers were handed their mission in the seven-plus minutes that their starting center lay on the floor.

Maybe the only bright side of losing half of the first eight players in the playing rotation is that the issue of where to find quality minutes for so many capable athletes has been resolved.

Juwan Howard gets his call to action today. So does Jerryd Bayless. And Andre Miller, if you've wondered at times how in the world you've come to find yourself in Portland without a role, well, consider the question answered.

Pritchard and McMillan are goal guys. They both set preseason goals for victories and accomplishments for the team. And Pritchard said on Sunday that he still "wants to make the playoffs." And he talked about not lowering expectations. But also, he mentioned that he doesn't expect the Blazers will make a move.

They cannot afford to sit still.

The starters, the reserves and the front office must find their way through this.

We're talking about an organization that had major traction after last season. And we know that Oden was a cornerstone to the Blazers championship window, and it would be easy today to simply slide that window back by two years or more and call it a day. But the organization shouldn't sit around waiting for Oden to heal because if they do, it ends up their legacy.

The Blazers are 13-8 and could cut Patty Mills and do something with his No. 15 roster spot. They have the ability to trade Miller after Dec. 15, if they can find a sweetheart of a deal for a veteran player with a short-term contract. And there's the February trade deadline and a load of floating possibilities.

What they can't do is fold.

Not with their owner fighting for his life and an assistant, too. Not with their coach jumping into drills and with Oden returning to the locker room to make a plea for his team to finish the game and get a win. Because what we have here is the intersection where sport meets life, and there's so much going on that we should be able to see it in the franchise's eyes.